Fitch Revises 4 Nigerian Banks’ Outlook to Negative

Access Bank Plc has brought the Christmas Season of Giving closer to its customers nationwide with its AccessMore -12 days of Christmas campaign where 100 lucky customers stand a chance to win N10,000 vouchers every day. This was disclosed yesterday, at a press conference held at the financial institution’s Head office in Lagos to flag off the campaign tagged “AccessMore 12 Days of Christmas” leveraging the XtraWins promotion.  The campaign will run from December 1 to December 12, 2023. Group Head, Consumer Banking, Access Bank Plc, Njideka Esomeju confirmed to newsmen that the campaign was launched to celebrate the holiday

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A Nigerian lender, Fidelity Bank Plc, has agreed to adopt the single framework for a sustainable banking industry developed through collaboration between banks worldwide and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Called the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), the initiative is a structure for ensuring that banks’ strategy and practices align with the vision society has set out for its future in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. Banks which have signed the principles commit to being ambitious in their sustainability strategies, working to mainstream and embed sustainability into

By Dipo Olowookere Some hours ago, news went viral that the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc has directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to take down all non-deposit financial institutions from their NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform because they are not authorised to hold customers’ funds. The circular, which was dated Tuesday, December 5, 2023, has generated mixed reactions as a few media platforms, excluding Business Post, listed some mobile money operators (MMOs) like Opay, PalmPay, and others are part of the financial technology (fintech) firms affected by the directive. In the disclosure sighted by this newspaper, the NIBSS specifically

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Banker magazine, a publication of the Financial Times, has announced Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc as the Bank of the Year in Nigeria. The Nigerian financial institution was honoured by the media platform as an awards cement held on Thursday, November 30, 2023, in London. The event, widely acknowledged as the Oscars of the Banking Industry, attracted several critical stakeholders in the global banking sector. It was explained that Stanbic IBTC Holdings was picked for the recognition because of its exceptional achievements in banking excellence, adept navigation of industry challenges, and commitment to providing innovative financial services

By Investors Hub Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors assessed the impact of surging oil prices on global growth. Investors also preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of key central bank meetings this week in the U.S. and Japan. Chinese shares fell sharply ahead of the next round of U.S.-China trade talks scheduled to start in Washington on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gave up 52.64 points, or 1.7 percent, to finish at 2,978.12, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tumbled 334.31 points, or 1.2 percent, to 26,790.24. Japanese shares finished marginally higher, led by energy-related

Ebitonye Akpodigha Those who specialise in carrying out all forms of irregularities in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects in the country have been warned to desist from such or risk the wrath of the Federal Government. The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, made this declaration on Thursday in Abuja, during a presentation of a task team implementation meeting on SDGs. He said this became necessary due to the current economic recession, which demands judicious use of available resources. Mr Adamu explained that the meeting was convened to review the implementation of SDGs in line with identified

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed in the negative territory following a marginal 0.02 per cent drop on Wednesday, March 10. The defeat came on the back of loss recorded by Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc as the company’s stock went down by 13 kobo or 0.7 per cent to close at N18.39 per unit compared with N18.50 per unit it closed at the previous session. As a result of this, the NASD unlisted securities index (NSI) moved downwards by 0.14 points to 733.30 points from 733.44 points, while the market capitalisation slipped by N120

By Ahmed Rahma A Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation, ABB, has called on governments and industries to accelerate the adoption of the technology to help combat climate change. ABB, which is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, revealed in its new whitepaper titled Achieving the Paris Agreement: The Vital Role of High-Efficiency Motors and Drives in Reducing Energy Consumption that there is the potential for significant energy efficiency improvements in industry and infrastructure, which can be enabled by the latest and most high-efficiency motors and variable speed drives. According to the President of ABB Motion, Morten Wierod, industrial energy efficiency has the single greatest capacity

By Adedapo Adesanya The Ogun State House of Assembly has passed the state’s 2021 Appropriation Bill of N338.6 billion with slight adjustments in recurrent and capital expenditures. Mr Olakunle Sobukanla, the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, had during plenary in Abeokuta presented the report of his committee on the budget before the House According to the report, the total recurrent expenditure was increased by 3.4 per cent from N141.7 billion to N146.5 billion, while the capital expenditure was reduced by 2.7 per cent from N176.6 billion to N171.8 billion. Mr Sobukanla explained that there were adjustments in the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira halted its recent downward movement as it regained its strength against the US Dollar for the first time this week at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market. The respite came for the Naira after back-to-back losses despite moves by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to save the Naira from plunging. Yesterday, the local currency gained 0.22 per cent or N1.73 against the greenback to close at N771.69/$1 compared with the previous day’s N773.42/$1. This country’s legal tender witnessed a significant increase in the value of FX transactions, as

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Corporate finance expert, Mr Ibikunle Ibiyinka Oriola, has been appointed as the Group Finance Director of UAC of Nigeria Plc. Mr Oriola is an Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) qualified accountant with a BSc degree in Finance from the University of Lagos and also an ICAN merit award winner. The board of the company said it expects him to deploy his rich experience to the development and implementation of appropriate finance strategies to uplift productivity and business performance across the UAC group. Mr Oriola is a seasoned professional with 17 years’ experience gained from diverse

By Adedapo Adesanya Users of older phone models will lose access to the popular mobile chat application, WhatsApp, from January 1, 2021. The app developers said these set of persons may be unable to use some features or not have access to the app itself. People who will be impacted are the ones who don’t have iOS 9 or above on their iPhone or Android 4.0.3 or above on their Android device. People with iPhone 4 models won’t be able to update to more recent software. The same will happen to people with Android devices such as the Motorola Droid